Rants--Three Questions, Part 1

It's been a month of Sundays since I've blogged, and longer than that since I had anything reasonably important to spout off about.  There is good reason for it.  I was making myself miserable.  Not during the off time, but in the blogging leading up to it.  As I see it, there are two elements in our political circles that routinely get the press--the Liars and the Haters.  In my abhorrence for the Liars I was becoming a Hater, and hating is not what I do.  I had to force myself to take a step back and analyze my foundation--what do I believe, why do I believe it, and what am I going to do about it?

Question 1--What do I believe?

There are so many angles of belief in my life.  First and foremost, I believe that Jesus Christ is (not was) the Son of God, that his mom was a virgin, and that his death on the cross was the act that allows me to have a relationship with God.  With that as a starting point, here we go.  I believe a family is made up of, at the very least, a man and a woman as husband and wife.  That family may grow and include children, and it may also include parents, cousins, grandparents, nieces, nephews, and so on.  I believe that children are better off if they are raised in one home--the home in which their mother and father live, together.  I believe that God has something to teach me through my kids, if I would just listen.  I believe I should love my neighbor no matter how convincing my neighbor's argument to the contrary.  I believe I should love my enemies no matter how despicable they seem to me.  I believe that no sin is greater than another.  We tend to sensationalize and humanize it so that some sins seems worse than others.  Stealing a piece of gum from mom's purse is equal to raping and killing a child.  Period.  I believe that I am responsible for providing for my neighbor if my neighbor is in need.  I believe that God's creation is a blessed gift and that I ought to be a responsible steward of that gift.  I believe that it is okay to get angry. Righteous anger can allow you to see things more clearly.  Anger for anger's sake makes things murkier. I believe that if David could dance and sing in the streets to glorify God, we all can.  I believe that war is a deplorable state of humanity.  It is also an unavoidable state (unless you want to be killed or enslaved), so a righteous war is better than an unrighteous war.  I believe that my wife could have done better than me, and she most certainly deserves better than I can offer.  I believe that before she started on the crack-pipe, Whitney had it right--our children ARE the future.

The critical belief that stabilizes my foundation is the first--that Jesus is my Saviour, that without His sacrifice I would not have the hope for the future that I have now.  Without that single foundational truth, all the rest is gibberish.  It all IS gibberish, really.  All you need is Jesus, and the rest will follow.